We love our kids, but we might not love the amount of unlimited energy they have - running around with heavy footfall and knocking you over whilst you have drinks in your hands, making all kinds of noise at all hours, potentially disturbing the neighbors, and then coming to you with cries of ‘I’m bored!’ And that’s only part of the reason being a parent is exhausting!
But of course, you wouldn’t have it any other way, but you would like to know how to better channel your child’s energy and happy spirit. Maybe into a talent or a skill they could use later on in life, maybe into being nice to their friends and family, maybe just into going outside a little bit more. Well, thankfully, there’s plenty of ways you can do all of these kinds of things!
Every fall it is difficult to get kids back into the routine of school night bedtimes. With the added challenges this year has brought, this seems to be even more of an issue for many families. To help, we created our resource to provide easy-to-do steps to help parents regain control over bedtime this school year!
So with that in mind, let’s explore some of the most productive ways you and your children can work together to have a household that’s just as energetic, but with none of that spirit going to waste. Kids should have fun whilst they’re young, but let’s make sure they carry that fun and fresh feeling all the way into adulthood as well.
Kids have a lot of energy to get through by the end of the day, and encouraging their use of it is going to make bedtime a lot easier to manage! (Image)
Make Up a Weekly Sports Club
Sports are a big thing in a kid’s world. They have PE classes at school, they have a playground to run around on with their friends at break and lunch times, and they've got a backyard back at home to put to good use. All in all, they’re going to be expending their energy in very physical ways more often than not, and that’s something you should encourage as much as possible. Not only does it help to strengthen their muscles and bones at a young age, making sure they’re a lot healthier as a teenager and a young adult, but it’s also the best way to get them off to bed at night with little protest!
After all, they’re going to get less and less active as they get older. But if you take the time now to instill a love of sport or physical activity in them whilst they’re young, they’re going to retain that sense of passion when they’re reaching a career age. And one of the best ways to encourage this passion is to get them enrolled in a sports club, or to come up with one of your own. You can even get your own track uniforms, if going cross country is something your little one likes the sound of!
Starting your own club means you can get other parents and their children involved as well, and you can put on real matches with plenty of players and pitch support. You can make it a weekly thing, to make sure you get into a routine of it with your child, and to make sure there’s a regular chance for progress. Your kids need consistency, if they’re going to keep up with an activity and use up their energy whilst doing it, and a club is a great structure for that!
Get Them to Help Out Around the House
Do your kids like to help you out around the house? Maybe they just like to let you get on with it, as they get stuck into a serious session with their dollhouse in the living room, or they run outside as soon as they see you open the dishwasher? Maybe they like to offer their help, and you love watching them stand on their tiptoes to try and reach the cupboard to put plates away? Either way, one of the best ways to get your kids to direct their energy into something more productive is to give them chores to do on a regular basis, and make sure they understand why.
Maybe they stomp their feet over the fact that they have to scrape their own plate whilst you sit down in the living room - explain to them that you cooked the meal and set the table, and that your part of the dinner time job is done. Tell them they’re helping you out tremendously by cleaning their own plate and putting it into the sink. Let them know that the chores you’re asking them to do are a good thing, and even task them to find more creative ways to get them done.
Maybe you can get them to choose a chore to do from a piece of paper out of a bucket. Maybe you can offer a rewards system for the amount of chores they get done over a week, and stamp a little card every time they complete a task you’ve set. Make sure they’re always got their minds turning over on how to get the house work done as fast and efficiently as possible, and they’re going to be pros by the time they’re teenagers!
Give Them an Alternative
Your child has a lot of energy, and that means they’ve got a lot of energy and willpower to argue and persist with. And if you’ve just woken up and not had your coffee yet, or you’ve had a long day and just want to relax for a few moments in the quiet, this kind of persistence can be very hard to take! At times like these, you’re going to want to come up with an alternative to the thing the child in front of you is demanding to have, and offer it up as a revolutionary idea.
Say they want to have another cookie, despite dinner being on the way in a few minutes, or they want to go outside but their room is littered with toys they’re tired of playing with - get them to compromise with you. Tell them they need to eat at least half their plate, and then they’ll get another cookie as their pudding, or tell them they need to put away at least five of their dolls or put their crayons back in the pack before you go outside with them.
This way, you’re not banning the activity they want to do, and you’re not making them hard graft for it either. Kids will certainly let you know when they don’t want to do something, so make sure you present things like healthy eating and chores bit by bit! It’s an alternative system that they’ll begin to understand more and more, and redirect their energy towards working with it.
Talk to Them
Of course you talk to your children, everyone who has kids will! But you need to be sure the conversations you’re offering are ones of substance, have something for the both of you to be interested in, and leave as little of a bad taste in your mouth as possible. After all, not all talks are going to be ones you want to have, or they’re going to be challenging to get through, but you need to have them. You don’t want your children using their curious and creative energy in the wrong way, and if you don’t answer the tough questions they bring to you, they’re going to have to find out from someone else!
Talking to your kids can make you laugh, and it can make you a little sad from time to time, and maybe a little disappointed when they come to you with a quickly spun tale of how your favorite vase got broken. But at the end of the day, talking to your children is a great way for them to expend some of the energy they’ve got so much of: make sure they always know they can come to you when they’ve got both big and little news, and when they’re got questions and need answers.
At the same time, make sure you’re always answering their attempts at conversation with enthusiastic answers. Kids can get excited about all kinds of things, and as adults, you probably don’t, but you’re still going to want to pretend! Maybe it’s a new video game they liked playing, maybe their teacher gave them a really nice comment on their homework, maybe they just have a toy they want to show you - ask them questions about why they love the toy, what they have to do on that game to complete it, or if their teacher has ever said something like that before.
So, Your Child Has a Lot of Energy…
And you wouldn’t want them to lose it! Instead, you want to encourage and redirect it, to make sure your kids are growing up with the right head on their shoulders and plenty of ways to deal with the energy they have and the emotions associated with it. Hopefully you can put some tips like these to good use in your own household, and there's a good chance you’re already using a few of them!